Texas Republican takes over House probe of Russian interference in election

House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas questions Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday June 11, 2014. Texas U.S. Rep. Michael Conaway was tapped Thursday to lead the House Intelligence Committee probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, which has been hampered by weeks of partisan discord over its chairman, Devin Nunes, who agreed to step aside.

Photo: Susan Walsh, STF / AP

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Midland, was tabbed Thursday to lead the House Intelligence Committee probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, which has been hampered by weeks of partisan discord over its chairman, Devin Nunes, who agreed to step aside.

For Conaway, a senior member of the intelligence panel, the assignment represents a sudden leap into the center of a gripping national drama over the U.S. intelligence and diplomatic apparatus, Russian agents and leading figures in the Trump and Obama administrations.

“I have been a member of the House Intelligence Committee for over eight years now, and it is a responsibility I take with the utmost seriousness,” Conaway said. “My profession as a CPA and auditor has taught me to be objective and methodical, and that is how I intend to help lead this investigation.”

Conaway’s new role was announced by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who acceded to Democratic calls for Nunes, who worked on President Donald Trump’s campaign, to step aside in the face of fresh ethics complaints over his role in helping the White House parry criticism of the president’s unsubstantiated claim that he was wiretapped by former President Barack Obama.

While saying that Nunes, a California Republican, continues to have his trust, Ryan said the new ethics probe would be a “distraction,” and called on Conaway to take the lead on the Russia investigation.

“I am confident that he will oversee a professional investigation into Russia’s actions and follow the facts wherever they lead,” Ryan said in a statement.

Your browser does not support the iframe HTML tag.
Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later.

Conaway also said Nunes continues to have his full support, and emphasized that his new leadership role in the Russia probe is temporary.

Conaway has handled sensitive assignments before as a former chairman of the House Ethics Committee, which investigates allegations of wrongdoing against members of Congress, generally considered one of the most thankless jobs in Washington.

A certified public accountant by training, he also once led an audit committee that uncovered fraud in hundreds of thousands of dollars of missing funds in National Republican Congressional Committee bank accounts.

The 68-year-old lifelong Texan has deep ties to the Bush family, including doing CPA work for an oil and gas company run by former President George W. Bush.

He graduated in 1966 from Permian High School in Odessa, where he was a standout player for the Permian Panthers and a member of the first Permian state championship football team in 1965.

He went on to Texas A&M and served in the Army. Among his assignments is the Armed Services Committee.

Last May, acting along with nine other House committee chairmen, Conaway endorsed Trump for president.

But as the current chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Conaway generally maintains a low profile overseeing commodity and nutrition programs that keep him far away from the national spotlight.

That’s about to change, with Democrats and allied groups alleging that House Republicans are seeking to stifle the progress of an investigation centered on potential cooperation between Trump campaign aides and Russian government and industry officials.

So far, he has only briefly flirted with controversy when he told the Dallas Morning News in January that Mexican singers and soap opera stars who appeared at Hillary Clinton campaign events influenced the election as much as Russian hackers did.

“Those are foreign actors, foreign people, influencing the vote in Nevada. You don’t hear the Democrats screaming and saying one word about that,” Conaway said.

The comment was widely decried by Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, who tweeted: “This is a pathetic and offensive attempt to try to diminish the consensus that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to boost Donald Trump.”

Conaway, who has represented Texas’ 11th congressional district since 2005, will take temporary control of the controversial Russia investigation with fellow Republicans Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, and Tom Rooney of Florida.

Despite the change in management, reactions from lawmakers on both sides Thursday suggested the partisan dynamics of the Russia probe will be little changed.

House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican from The Woodlands, defended Nunes’ work and said he foresees little change in direction under Conaway.

“Like Devin Nunes, he’s a very thoughtful member of Congress and will go to the facts and to the truth of this,” Brady said.

Democrats, meanwhile, continued to press for an independent investigation.

“Putting three Republicans in charge of an investigation that has been so bungled by one is not reassuring,” said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-San Antonio. “While Mike Conaway is an amiable and thoughtful colleague whom I respect, the only way to restore public confidence is with a nonpartisan, independent, comprehensive review of the Russian attacks and any possible involvement of Trump associates.”

“Instead,” Doggett continued, “as with the Trump tax returns cover-up, Republicans seem much more interested in protecting Trump than learning the truth.”

Nunes, meanwhile, will retain his position as chairman of the intelligence committee.

“Despite the baselessness of the charges, I believe it is in the best interests of the House Intelligence Committee and the Congress for me to have Rep. Mike Conaway, with assistance from Reps. Trey Gowdy and Tom Rooney, temporarily take charge of the committee’s Russia investigation while the House Ethics Committee looks into this matter,” Nunes said.

Nunes has been under fire for his handling of information that Trump officials may have been swept up in surveillance of foreign agents. He said he briefed Trump on the information before telling other members of the committee.

The New York Times subsequently reported that White House officials were Nunes’ sources on the information.

The committee’s top Democrats, Adam Schiff of California, said he respected Nunes’ decision to step aside.

Said Conaway: “I am confident that ranking member Schiff and I will be able to work together to conduct an effective, bipartisan investigation.”